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Michael Lindsay-Hogg was born in New York City to actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, and was educated at Trinity School in New York and at Choate School in Connecticut.[1] Fitzgerald and her husband, Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Baronet (1910–1999), led him to believe that he was their natural son; however, his biological father was Orson Welles, the actor and film director.[2] For years, rumors about his true parentage abounded, but Lindsay-Hogg was uninterested in them.[2] He first met Welles as a teenager, acted with him in Ireland, and continued to meet with him sporadically for the rest of Welles' life. Lindsay-Hogg's step-father was Stuart Scheftel, who married Geraldine Fitzgerald when Michael was six, after she had divorced Sir Edward.[2]

In January 2010 came word that Lindsay-Hogg was going to take a DNA test to determine if famed American filmmaker Orson Welles, who was friend of the family, was in fact his father.[3] The test gave no result, as the hair from Sir Edward that was used in the test did not contain a follicle.[4] Confirmation of his true parentage came after Lindsay-Hogg sent a copy of his unpublished autobiography to his mother's friend Gloria Vanderbilt, who confirmed that Welles was his father.[2] Lindsay-Hogg's memoir, Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond, was published in the fall of 2011.[2]

For ten years, in the 1970s, Lindsay-Hogg was romantically involved with British actress Jean Marsh.[5] He had also been involved with Gloria Vanderbilt, who was the person who finally confirmed Welles' paternity to Lindsay-Hogg.[2]

He acceded to the baronetcy in 1999, upon the death of his legal father, Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg.

On 19 and 20 May 1966 Lindsay-Hogg directed two pairs of film clips (then known as "filmed inserts") to promote The Beatles current single "Paperback Writer".

On 4 September 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios Hogg directed the promotional film for the new single "Hey Jude" with Paul McCartney himself designing the set. The event is also memorable as it marked Ringo Starr's return to the group after a two-week hiatus, during which he had announced that he had left the band.[6] The final cut was a combination of several different takes, twelve having been filmed during the entire days session, according to the actor Marc Sinden who was in the film along with his brother Jeremy.[7] In 1969, he directed the full-length documentary Let It Be.